The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1887-01-19
The Birth and Life or Comets.

III an orb like the sun elects from its
interior the materials for forming
first class comet, il must send forth
that flight of meteors in good style, or
else the cometic progeny will return to
the bosom of its solar parent like the
prodigious son"-as Launcelot has it
a disappointment and a failure. The
elected matter must start forth at tho
rate of few hundreds of miles per
second. In our suns case $50 miles
per second would suffice. A note
worthy effort must be made, even by
such giant as the sun, to effect this
lively election. But that sun is capa-
BILE of it, no one who considers the
might of our own sun can for a moment
question. He is 325, 900 times as strong
as this little earth on which we live.
His vitality is shown by his luster,
which is about equal to the light which
would come from two millions of mill
ions of millions of millions OF ele trio
burners. 1t is shown also by his tre-
mendous emission of heat. equal to
what would result from burning each
second a mass of coal (of the best
quality be it UNDERSTOOD 200 miles
broad, 200 miles long, and 200 miles
that is, eight million cubic miles of
coal This would be about $4,000
millions of millions of tons per second
(the whole output of our exception
ally coal-producing country is but
about $50 millions of tons per an
NUM-. The sun, then, and doubtless
every one of his fellow-suns, the stars,
has undoubtedly the requisite power,
if only it had the will, to eject matter
in the required manner. Now, of course,
our own sun is not often engaged upon
such work as this. Although most
active and vigorous, the source, indeed
directly or Indirectly, of all life and
energy within his system, he works
steadily, not ftfully. Yet every now
and then he spurts into sudden though
local activity of the most amazing kind.
In one of these fits he shot out flight
of bodies whose swift motion through
the hydrogen atmosphere which en-
wraps the sun was measured at 100
miles per second, and indicated Gas
was shown by mathematical computa-
tom velocity of 40 miles per second,
as the missiles left the suns surface.
Since the time (1o72) when the sun
was first caught in the act of this eject
ing matter away from his own interior
forever because he can never bring
back matter which leaves him with
velocity of more than $50 miles per
second) he has been detected four or
five times at the same lively business.
There can be no doubt, then, either
about the suns power to ,ect mat
ter from his interior as the giant
I Il ~. l.
have done, or about his exerting that
power from time to time. And what
the sun can do his fellow suns can do
likewise. In fact, just as our earth is
a sample planet, so the sun is sample
star. Now, suppose there are ten
thousand millions OF stars in our
GALAXY most moderate calculation
that each one of them has been in the
sun-like state for ten millions of years
(our earth actually tells us by her crust
that the sun has been at work as now
for one hundred millions of years., and
that in ten years on the average only
one election such as we are considering
has taken place, then there would be
10000, 600, 900, 900, 900 stare ;ected me-
teor flights or comets { aveling in the
interste lar spaces. With so goodly
probable supply we need not wonder
if our solar system is from time to time
visited by larger comets, such as these
elections might be supposed to have
given birth to in the past. But a few
cf the comets which from time to time
visit our sun may be regarded as his
own children returned TO him-not to
stay, only to pay a sort of flying visit.
The greater number of the comets
elected by him and returning-for want
OF sufficient velocity at starting to their
own home, would come straight to the
warm bosom of their parent, and there
rest. -COrnhW Magazine.